Space babies

David Reneke has a post saying the next astronaut on the moon may very well be a lady, because NASA has a commitment to equality.

the elephant in the room: Babies.



Some female astronauts have been committed single women or lesbians, so no problem. But what about if they want to come home and have a child?

this 2010 article from Time magazine notes that China's female astronauts will be chosen only from women who already had a child.

The reasoning behind the prerequisite, according to officials, is that spaceflight could potentially harm the women's fertility. "It's out of the consideration of being responsible for the female pilots," Xu Xianrong, director of the PLA's Clinical Aerospace Medicine Center in Beijing and a member of the selection panel, told the official government news agency Xinhua. "Though there is little evidence on how the space experience will affect the female constitution, we have to be extra cautious, because this is a first for China." Ensuring that the female astronauts have already reproduced, he said, will guarantee that their family planning is not disrupted.

and this being China, you can note this little observation:

But at least one authority, Zhang Jianqi, former deputy commander of the country's manned space program, has stated that the requirement stands because married women are more physically and psychologically mature.

so how about the effect of zero gravity and radiation on fertility?

UK Telegraph article (2014):

Animal experiments have shown that both male and female reproductive organs are affected by zero gravity. It is also likely that space radiation is damaging the ovaries of female astronauts and the sperm production of men. Although most astronauts have already had their families by the time they go into space, NASA is so concerned that it now offers egg and sperm freezing.

in other words, they will get around the problem by using high tech interventions.

I remember one early astronaut whose wife bore a normal child after he returned, but can't find which one. But scientists were worried at the time about mutations if sperm or ova are radiated.

And if the woman is pregnant, there are worries not only about radiation but on microgravity problems in the developing baby.

and another trivia fact: menstruation in space is a bummer, and one reason that early flights didn't include women.

and Wikipedia has an entire article on sex in space. Yes, it's wikipedia so don't quote it.

and of course, if any of them already have done "it", they are keeping quiet about it. 

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update: this is an article about how high dose radiation therapy for cancer affects fertility and childbearing.